Fork In The Road Music » Media Shout

50 Free Worship Backgrounds

Russell Martin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:57:58 +0000

Here is a set of 56 free photos that you can use as worship backgrounds. Each one has been cropped to 4:3 ratio for use with your worship slides. Just click the following link which takes you to my flickr site.

4:3 Worship Backgrounds

While there feel free to check out these other photos you might be able to use.

Textures- 44 phot os of different textures. Not cropped to 4:3 ratio

Water- 14 water themed photos

Flowers and Plants- 61 Nature themed photos

Free Background- Garden Angel Blur in 4 Colors

Russell Martin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:00:20 +0000

One of the most downloaded backgrounds on this site has been the Garden Angel Blur that I made from a photo I had taken this Summer at one of my work camps. I thought maybe someone would like it in a color other than green… so here they are. Click on the image once to go to the gallery, and then again to view the full sized image. Then right click and save. You are free to use them for your worship services, announcements etc.. It would be cool if you would let me know how you used them.

Youth Worship: Making Your Job Easier

Russell Martin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:01:48 +0000

This used to be the way I did things when I was leading the youth worship team.

1. Find a song that the youth wanted to do.

2. Type up the lyrics

3. Use my awesome ear training skills to figure out the chords

4. Transpose the key if needed for the vocals to sing

5. Rehearse with the band

6. Create a powerpoint slide from the lyrics

6. Repeat

I guess I have done it that way for the longest time because there was really no other way to do it. There were some song books that went along with some CDs but they usually contained the full piano sheet, not really easy to use for a guitar player. So I continued listening to songs, chording them out, and my computer began to become filled with pages of these creations. That was until now…

Now there are many resources that come out with everything provided for you. There are many out there from different companies. I started out using SPIN or Student Praise Interactive Network. They provide CD’s with split tracks along with lyric sheets, chord sheets, piano parts and powerpoint or media shout ready lyrics.

Recently I have started using Vertical Music Worship Tools. These provide pretty much the same thing like split tracks, lead sheets, guitar parts etc. They also include a DVD that contains videos of each instrument playing their part. This is great for demonstrating how to play a certain song on a specific instrument. This Vertical Music resource creates its arrangements from a specific artists CD. The most recent one I received were arrangements from Lincoln Brewster’s “Today is the Day” CD.

As I said before there are tons of resources like this that are now becoming available. The ones I mentioned are just the two that I have been most familiar with. I suggest these because while it is great to be able to sit and chord out song after song, is it really the best use of my time? There are still many opportunities for me to hone my ear training, music transcribing skills like when I am writing songs, or when those songs come along that I don’t have a resource for. By using these resources though I can drastically cut my arranging time down.

Oh.. I don’t have powerpoint lyrics or split tracks but I do have the lead sheets for several of my songs available for you to download. Check out all my free resources on my resource page or by clicking on free stuff

Youth Worship: Worshipping without a band

Russell Martin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:36:07 +0000

Recently my friend Tim Schmoyer who blogs at Life in Student Ministry received the following email from a youth leader looking for some help. He asks:

“Do you know of any GOOD cd’s or dvd’s for sing-a-long praise and worship music for teens. We are a small group in rural Missouri. No praise band but we want to praise God during our meetings. I’d appreciate any help you have to offer. Thanks a million and God bless.”

Worship music is a very important aspect of any youth ministry I have been involved in. Sometimes we had groups that sang a few songs at the beginning or end of a youth group time, sometimes we had a band that played for a youth worship service or maybe just some guitars around the campfire singing favorite songs. But the question is what do you do when you do not have anyone who can play guitar, or who can lead songs? There are a few options.

Option #1CD/DVD resources- Many different companies now offer worship music on CD and DVD. Two of the main ones I have used before are Iworship and SPIN or Student Praise Interactive Network.

The Iworship DVDs included the songs being performed and video backgrounds with the words displayed. They even have a new cool product called IWORSHIP Flexx which allows you to easily move between verses, bridges etc. They also include split tracks so you can either worship and sing along with the vocals, or just have the background music play.

Student Praise Interactive Network is another great resource and the one I am more familiar with. SPIN sends you a package of resources in one disc. These include the split tracks for each song, lyrics formatted for Media Shout and Powerpoint, Chord Sheets, Lyric Sheets, and Piano Music. I really like this resource because it provides a great transition if you do find an guitar player, piano player or vocalist who can slowly work into leading worship for you. Since the piano and chord sheets go along with the CD, they can play along, and sing along while they learn and become more comfortable and confident.

Option #2 Find a Service Nearby- Although it does not meet a need for worship every week, on an occasional basis you may be able to take your group to a worship service somewhere else. Maybe there is a church or youth group in your area that does a weekly contemporary worship service. What a great way not only to worship as your own group but to join others in worship, maybe even from a different denomination. Also keep your eyes and ears open for concerts that may be coming to your area. Worship groups like Hillsongs, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin not to mention many others, all tour and offer great worship opportunities for your group to attend.

Option #3 Bring Someone In- Maybe there is someone in your area who leads worship who would be willing to come lead worship for you on a one time or regular basis. There are many beginning worship leaders who are just looking for opportunities to lead and would love to have the opportunity to share in worship with your group. Check with other churches in your area, or your denominational head office to find some names. There are also sites like indie heaven which have a collection of christian artists, and a way for you to search for some in your area.

Resources: Where to Find Music

Russell Martin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:47:00 +0000

There are plenty of free sites out there that offer you chord sheets for your favorite worship songs. Finding them is as easy as searching for the name of the song, and tabs. The result will be a variety of sites, with a variety of results. There are also some sites that cost a little but give you a lot. Two sites that I have landed on recently that I am tending to use more and more for my worship song resources.

Praise Charts- www.praisecharts.com – Praise charts is a collection of Worship songs from many of the top worship publishers on the scene today. Artists like Lincoln Brewster, Hillsongs, Tommy Walker, Mercy Me, Passion and David Crowder. Options for most songs include Orchestration, Piano, Rythm, and sometimes Finale files and chord charts. The songs are based on a credit system. You sign up and pay for 25-50 credits and use them over a one year period.

Recommendation- If your group is small and just plays mostly by tabs then this might not be the resource for you. However if you either have or are planning on any brass, winds or chorus then these arrangements are great and have it all done for you.

Song Select- www.songselect.com – Song select is a service of CCLI and provides a collection of arrangements for most of the worship songs covered by CCLI. Songs like “Mighty to Save”, “How Great is Our God”, “Blessed Be Your Name” and tons of others used in worship services everywhere. Song Select provides lyrics which are downloadable and formatted for Media Shout, Power Point etc, an audio clip, Chord Sheets, Lead Sheets and Hymn Sheets (4 part harmony arrangements). Most of the arrangements are good. I don’t particuarly care for the Hymn harmonies but I can be picky. The service over all is a set fee and you can download as much as you like. The thing I really like is that all the songs are transposable and you can print them in any key.

I listed these two paid sites because they offer consistent results and cover a multitude of songs. I know there are a ton of free websites that offer chords and tabs along with lyrics. What sites do you use when you or your worship team is looking for chord sheets?

Media: Where to Find Graphics

Russell Martin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:08:00 +0000

I remember 10 years ago going to a mid winter camp for our conference and the worship leader was leading music and the words were on transparencies being “projected” onto a sheet. A few years later I was at the same event where the white words were projected onto a black background. It seems today though that a slide isn’t a slide without countless number of background graphics. While I sometimes wonder if we may have gone overboard, putting a different picture with every slide, not staying with a theme etc, I do realize the value of a well chosen graphic to go behind the words that we are singing, or for a sermon, announcements and other uses.
There are several websites where you can go to find free graphics for you to use. Here are some of my favorites:

Stock Exchange- http://www.sxc.hu/ – This is a photo exchange where thousands of photos exist for your use. All the photos are huge, big enough to print, but can be easily compressed down for use on screens. Most of them are covered under the normal licenses which allows you to use the photo for free unless you are using it to make money by selling it in a design set or something like that. Some photos require you to notify the artist when you use the photo in public.

Creative MYK- http://www.creativemyk.com/ Creative MYK adds a different twist on the traditional photo site. It allows people to upload not only photos but also Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator Files. Most of them upload in layers so if you see something you like you can edit it for your uses. I actually have a gallery here with a few photos.

There are a ton of other sites out there. These are the ones I use the most.
Where do you find your graphics?

Backgrounds Part #2

Russell Martin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:56:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I attended a UM ARMY camp for the college students. While there I took these pictures and we ended up using some as worship backgrounds. I thought I would share some with you.

If you would like to download full sized pics of 1536×1024 pixels please click here.

Free Photos

Russell Martin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:20:00 +0000

I was reading browsing through one of my favorite sites called plugrug.com and came across a like to a website for free graphics called creativemyk. The cool thing about the site is that it does not only include photos but also adobe files, templates etc for you to download and use. I created my own profile and have been uploading photos. Please use them, download them and let me know what you think of them. Also if you have a place you have uploaded created graphics for use in worship services please let me know and I can post them up here.

What about the Worship?

Russell Martin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:43:00 +0000

See if you’ve ever been in this “hot spot”.

Its 15 minutes before church and the lead vocalist hasn’t shown up, the video isn’t working right and a sound check at this point, is never going to happen. How on earth will this service ever flow and people enter in and praise? Well, after the grueling 15 minutes of worry, worship starts and ends. People come up after the service and say they felt the presence of the Lord so strongly…. they have never worshiped so freely before. Wow… everything went great! What was I so worried about?
The question that we should be prepared is understood, but my thought for you today is this:
Do you think that your skill or the band, the video or the atmosphere is going to move people into that place of worshiping the King? In all humility, we say no, but by our actions, we often contradict that idea when things aren’t going just the way we planned. I challenge you, that if you are ever in a situation of “less than perfect circumstances” that you’ll take a step back and pray to the one who is the Author of praise. We can only plant the seeds, but it is the Lord who will bring forth the fruit Psalm 103:2 says it perfectly, “praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not His benefits” the key word in that verse is HIS…. not OUR…. HIS benefits go far beyond what our mind can conceive. Even in a worship service that we feel is doomed.
Many blessings and much favor to you!!

Kerri Crocker